William Watson: If this is how America treats its friends …
Regarding our current predicament with our neighbours on the continent, I realize it risks a rebuke from Elon Musk to say so but if Americans had elected Kamala Harris last month, we would not currently be in a national panic about access to the U.S. market, and no one within 100 miles of the White House would be making sophomoric jokes about “Governor Justin Trudeau” of the “Great State of Canada.”
Just saying.
We would have faced tough, protectionist demands when the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement came up for renegotiation in 2026. The Democrats are protectionists, too. But an across-the-board 25 per cent tariff on inauguration day? No chance.
As for this business about the U.S. “subsidizing” Canada because we run a trade surplus with it (on our merchandise account, though not in services) that’s just bonkers. Subsidizing means giving something for nothing, except maybe a promise about future behaviour. Our trade surplus with them means we are the ones sending them more goods than they are sending us.
If anybody’s subsidizing, it’s us. They pay for the extra goods they get from us with currency — paper, promises, bytes — and in return get real, useful things. We send them real goods in exchange for financial promises. Sounds like we’re the ones being had. So enough about “subsidizing.”
If launching a trade war against us, suddenly and deliberately, is the way America now treats its friends, well, forget about friendship, too.
Yes, I do know my Palmerston/De Gaulle/Kissinger: countries don’t have friends, only interests. But, sharing the world’s longest undefended border, we and the Americans are closer to being country-friends than any other country pair.
So how does threatening your friend with sudden,
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